Facebook Site Retargeting; Katz Back

Facebook is launching another retargeting tool, separate from FBX, that will allow a website owner to serve ads on mobile and desktop via custom audiences. It’s like the Facebook version of Google AdWords site retargeting, but it’s called Website Custom Audiences. FB’s new retargeting will also work separately from established retargeting platforms such as Turn and Triggit -- it’s self-serve and lacks the bells and whistles of dynamic creative, for example. Read the blog post. Facebook product marketing manager Scott Shapiro discusses the different flavors of retargeting with Ad Age (FBX/Custom Audiences): "A travel client will use FBX to retarget people who've gone searching for hotels and then show them that exact hotel [they saw]. ... They'll use custom audiences to reach people who are searching for hotels but have not downloaded their mobile app on iOS 7 on iPad." Read more.

Katz Back

Former interclick (acquired by Yahoo in 2012) CEO Michael Katz is “back” as the CEO and co-Founder of mobile data platform company mParticle which announced the closing a $3 million round of seed funding yesterday. In addition to Katz, the company includes many of the same core group from interclick. "Ultimately, we're making mobile data activation seamless, and enabling app owners to spend more time creating the best possible consumer experience by providing them with a proper data framework," said Katz in a statement. The round was led by Mike Brown Jr.’s Bowery Capital along with Google Ventures, Greylock Partners and several angel investors. Read the release.

About Ad Network 2.0

BMO Capital Markets’ Dan Salmon offered his thoughts on ad-buying platform Rocket Fuel’s future in a note to investors this week. Investment thesis: “We believe the company’s growing exposure to nondisplay inventory (i.e., online video, social and mobile) is vital to maintaining hypergrowth; international opportunities seem to be underestimated by investors at the moment. The company’s strong technology requires consistent innovation to maintain its lead, but the company also differentiates itself with a strong sales and services organization. Long term, investors remain focused on the sustainability of gross margins, and we expect pressure over the long term. But the transition to nondisplay revenue is helping sustain and grow them in the near term, and the potential to evolve into more of a platform model (as Rocket Fuel has with its Japanese affiliate) could help address some of these concerns.” Rocket Fuel is valued at just over $2 billion.

Ad Server Of The Future

On his personal blog, kbs+’s Darren Herman thinks hard about the ad servers to come. He reasons, “As the media agency model adopts owned/earned (they traditionally handle ‘paid’), the need for serving and tracking content emerges. The format of choice for traditional ad servers [is] banners but this will change and we see ad servers serving almost any sized unit. From this paragraph forward in the post, I use the [words] Content Servers as the new ad server.” Read the proceeding paragraphs.

When I Was A Client

In a feature in Adweek, new CMO Erin Matts of Omnicom’s Annalect compares her experience in the agency to when she was on the client side (Anheuser-Busch InBev): “The things I thought as an agency person were important don’t even affect me as a client. As a client, advertising isn’t about solving ad problems. It’s a byproduct of your business problem. On new business pitches, as soon as I walked in the door, I’d be thinking, what story is going to play well in that room. As a client, it was, I’ve heard that story before.” Read the full interview here.

Publishing Money

Vox Media has raised $34 million in funding, according to AllThingsD and an SEC filing. Peter Kafka speculates the company could be a candidate for Yahoo or Time Inc., given Jim Bankoff’s apparent success monetizing online publishing. The company is on the path toward profitability, Bankoff insists. Read more.